I just finished my drum simulator and everything works great except that the pots do absolutely nothing(well, one of them has a very slight effect). I read on the Yahoo forum someone who had the same problem and someone suggested that he might have used newer 3v diodes. The diodes I used are the old fashioned 1.6v. Does anyone have any suggestions?
thanks,
steve

I just finished my drum simulator and everything works great except that the pots do absolutely nothing(well, one of them has a very slight effect). I read on the Yahoo forum someone who had the same problem and someone suggested that he might have used newer 3v diodes. The diodes I used are the old fashioned 1.6v. Does anyone have any suggestions?
thanks,
steve

If it helps, here is a pattern using both of my CGS18 voices as I sweep the harmonics pot from min to max.* I used 1.6v LEDs too. I don't get much effect from the pot until the last 25% or so. I sometimes wonder if I could get a little more juice out of that knob, just a little heavier distortion.

If your build is working otherwise it seems like there are very few possibilities to explain why one pot doesn't work:

Jim, thanks for posting the recording. you're getting a LOT more difference out of that pot than I am. I think my LEDs are in correctly but I'm not a hundred percent sure because they were a different make than I've used before. But when the drum is working the LEDs do flash, although very faintly. If they were in backwards would they still flash?
steve

Jim, thanks for posting the recording. you're getting a LOT more difference out of that pot than I am. I think my LEDs are in correctly but I'm not a hundred percent sure because they were a different make than I've used before. But when the drum is working the LEDs do flash, although very faintly. If they were in backwards would they still flash?
steve

No problem, Steve.

I assume they shouldn't flash if you have them in backwards, and per Ken's notes on the CGS site, the flashing is pretty faint. The brightness increases as you turn the pot to max. Pretty noticeable in the dark of a cabinet at least.

Well, the voltage must be getting somewhere if they are flashing. You could try banana-clipping the cathodes to ground to confirm that your pot wiring is ok. If you hear/see an improvement, then you know it's something to do with the pots._________________-Jim

I had the same problem, when using modern LEDs.
I asked Ken and he suggested either adding 2nd LED in opposite direcetion in parallel, or removing the led and replacing with two 1n4148 diodes in series. I tried both options and both worked.

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